Eternal gratitude for three ‘brave people’

The shell of Wallcliffe House, which contained a precious collection of original furniture made for the pioneering Bussel family.
Photo: Augusta Margaret River Mail

by
Natalie Gerritsen | Peter Kerr

Businesswoman
Janet Holmes à Court
has described how she came within two minutes of losing her holiday house in the Margaret River bushfires.

An ember ignited the doormat at the front of her home at Gnarabup. Then the front door caught alight, followed by one of the walls.

Houses belonging to National Australian Bank chairman
Michael Chaney
and Economic Regulation Authority chief
Lyndon Rowe
were destroyed in the fires, which swept through the grape-growing region after a controlled burn on November 23 crossed containment lines.

“The firefighters must have been right there, because my house is made out of wood," Ms Holmes à Court said. “They were three wonderful, brave people. I’m eternally grateful."

In the same street, two homes built in the past year were destroyed. The surrounding streets were also hit hard.

Forty homes and holiday chalets were lost in the fire, which raged for four days after the official burn-off went wrong.

Fires in the region have not yet been fully contained. On Friday, about 100 people were evacuated from the eastern part of the coastal town of Augusta, which is about 40 kilometres south of Margaret River.

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Mr Chaney arrived at Margaret River on the morning of November 25 as firefighters were battling to control the blaze. News that his homestead, Wallcliffe House, built in 1865, had suffered an unknown amount of damage had broken the night before.

It was midday before Mr Chaney and his wife Rose were able to fly over the site in a Seven Network helicopter and see there was little left standing. That afternoon they went to the site on foot.

“Everything was destroyed except the one timber building, which was the boatshed, even though fire raged right next to it," Mr Chaney said. Buildings lost included the original home as well as a guesthouse, dormitory and workshops the Chaneys had added.

The Chaneys bought Wallcliffe House in 2001.

The homestead was built by pioneering West Australian family the Bussels, after whom the nearby town of Busselton was named. Inside the home was a precious collection of original furniture made for the family.

Ms Holmes à Court said the Chaneys’ loss was a tragedy for the community’s heritage.

“We have so little history here and historic buildings, so to lose one like that is just really tragic," she said.

Apart from its historic significance, Wallcliffe House was an important place for Chaney family gatherings.

Mr Chaney said it was unlikely he would rebuild at this stage. He was prepared to wait for the outcome of an inquiry into the fire before laying blame.

Mr Rowe, an economist who lost his eventual retirement home in dense bushland in the town of Redgate, said others were far worse off than him, but he was upset by how the fire started.

“I am still having real difficulty coming to grips with the fact that the fire that destroyed our home was deliberately lit," he said.

“To deliberately light a fire in the second half of November, on a windy day . . ."